Welde: Badisch Gose (Germany: Gose: 4.6% ABV)
Visual: Lemon curd, hazy and carbonated. Moderate white head.
Nose: Lemon and meringue. Salted rock. Lime. Muesli. Light funky yeast. Orange slices.
Body: Tart lime. Creamy. Soft lemon juice and lemon curd. Pocari sweat drink. Light rock. Orange. Slight salt. Mild gherkin.
Finish: Milky. Lemon and lime juice mix. Meringue. Ready salted potato crisps.
Conclusion: Early on during drinking this I would have just guessed it as a slightly creamier take on a hefeweizen, that is if I didn’t already know better. The huge words “gose” on the bottle were a dead giveaway. Anyway, it is full of soft lemon, both as curd and meringue, notes – easy drinking, refreshing and pleasing.
Even as that I was happy with it, though I did think it didn’t really show any sign of its unusual style choice. However slowly, over time the gose character comes out – lightly salted, kind of like ready salted crisps, and with a just slightly rocky character. However unlike other gritty beers this did not come in so heavy as to intrude, instead being a smaller note than even the small cloying touch that develops. The refreshing styling still dominates the beer, but now it has a touch of edge to it – the subtle salt created thirst hurrying you to sip again.
With the recent onslaught of gose beers I have gone from never having tried them to having had a bevy of bad examples, a bunch of mediocre, a handful of good, and one other or maybe two other that, like this one, genuinely shines. It doesn’t push the unusual notes too hard, just lets them gently inform your experience of the beer.
If you are unsure of the gose style I would say give this one a try – it doesn’t seem a radical reinterpretation, but neither does it cleave too hard to harshness to impress you with its authenticity. It keeps just enough tradition, adds class and craft and creates an easy drinking beer with an edge.
Background: This was another birthday gift beer, many thanks, and also another chance to try the salted, sour, wheat beer style that is the gose. Drunk while chilling out after watching the first few episodes of series two of Daredevil, I was in a fair good mood and listening to some of the old favorite band The Eels. Always was especially a fan of “Climbing To The Moon”, but they were generally all good.
